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3rd Online Bingo Summit 2008 - Introduction

3rd Annual Bingo Summit One of the key indicators of the strength of the online Bingo industry is the Annual Online Bingo Summit. Now into its 3rd year, the event is organised by Bullet Business and was held in London on the 17th and 18th of June 2008, at the Royal Garden Hotel. Once again I was there to take part in the two days of panels and discussion and get the feel of the issues important to the industry and how this has changed over the last year.

First of all I'll give a brief introduction to the event, followed by more in-depth features around what where in my opinion some of the standout concerns and themes over the two days. If you'd first like to take a look at last year's events, you can read the 2007 Online Bingo Summit coverage here.

If you needed any proof about the growth of the online Bingo space, then this summit is a great pointer to the vibrancy of the market. The first summit in 2006 attracted 60 attendees. Last year's event saw that total rise to 180. This year there were 250 places at the event, and once again it was a sellout. The event pulls in a wide range of people in the industry, from around the world, representing all aspects of the online Bingo. Over the two days there are panels on a wide range of subjects to do with the game, taking in legal aspects, new growth areas, innovative marketing, growing the business and day to day operations.

The exhibition hall in the 3rd Annual Bingo Summit Alongside the panels, it's a great opportunity to meet up with people from the industry. It's particularly good for me as I spend most of my time either talking to people down the internet or the telephone line. It was pleasant to meet up with fellow Bingo writers like Nickie from Balls Up, Ben from Bingo Hideout, Scott from BingoPort and the team from Free Bingo. On the professional side it was also good to meet up with a range of people from affiliate managers, to Bingo hall and online Bingo owners. There's always plenty of gossip and behind the scenes information to be had and that's worth a ticket on its own. There's also an exhibition hall where you can see and discuss some of the payment and software options available.

As for the actual content of the summit, some areas of coverage in last year's event were not in evidence so much this time around and others were noticeable by their absence. Last year's event had a heavy leaning towards mobile Bingo and the network vs standalone debate. These topics were barely touched upon this time. The one subject that came glaring through to me was that of Bingo and its emergence as a TV format alongside the online format. As a topic for discussion it popped up time and time again, whilst barely registering back in September 2007.

There was less about the technology behind the game this time, and fewer payment methods were in attendance. Europe was on the agenda again this time around, as were legal and licensing issues for operators and their marketing. Some of the sessions were very similar to those that run last year, so rather than duplicate coverage from last year, I'll skip over those areas and instead concentrate on the newer areas and some of my thoughts about what was covered.

I've grouped my coverage into a number of areas, you can read the more in-depth coverage by choosing the topic below. The articles are pretty long, so if you don't fancy reading them online, I've compiled them into one handy Word document that you can print off and read at your own leisure. You can download it here.

All 3rd Online Bingo Summit Articles

Author: David Lloyd - July 2008

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3rd Online Bingo Summit 2008 - Introduction

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